


Couldest Shoulder

by Naerryn



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: Rebels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 20:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21380287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naerryn/pseuds/Naerryn
Summary: Growing up as the future Voice of the Emperor, my Master decided it was time that my path would cross the one's of the Grand Admiral Thrawn of the Imperial Navy.
Kudos: 3





	Couldest Shoulder

As I slid a bare foot over the cold metallic floor, I steadied my position for the next hard blow of my opponents lightsaber. We had circled around each other before coming to a halt, the red haired woman observing every of my motions and I mirrored her attentive action. Her plump lips twisted into a smirk, swinging her single bladed lightsaber in one hand before the jumped forward, missing me by a hair’s breadth.

I feel the air vibrating against my clothes when I danced behind her, tapping the blunt end of my own lightsaber against her back. “You’re dead, Jade.”, I told her calmly while I took a step back, facing the Emperor’s Hand with a dismissive look in the eyes.

“You’ve trained while I was gone. Good.”, Mara Jade flashed a smile at me in return, seconds before the lightsabers collided right in front of our faces. I stared into her emerald green eyes, tightening the grip around the handle as I pushed the dangerously humming blade further against hers.

“But I haven’t expected anything else from the future Voice of the Emperor.”, she appreciated with a light bow of her head, causing a couple strands of her long hair to fall into her face.

One of my hands left the handle of my lightsaber, waving it gently to push the petite woman through the air. Gracefully, Mara Jade landed on her feet, flipping her hair back to glance at me with a mischievous spark in her eyes. With a small gesture of her left hand, I instantly felt like an invisible carpet being pulled away right under my feet and I painfully felt on my back.

“I should have seen that coming.”, I exhaled under gritted teeth, looking over to Mara as I rested my elbows on the ground and I noticed the blank expression on her face.

I saw that expression on her face in the past, whenever Darth Sidious whispered into her mind. Training was over, that much I knew.

Once I got back on my feet, I draw the dark red blade of my lightsaber back, attaching the handle back onto my belt before I crossed the room, stopping in my track right in front of the experienced member of the Hands of the Emperor.

Eyes remaining on Mara Jade’s features, my sight traveled along her sharp cheekbones and the faint freckles covering them. She was beautiful, an extremely proud woman with a charming personality. But here soul was tinged with goodness, a dim beam of light in all the darkness surrounding her. If I was able to feel it, the Emperor felt it too.

Hands of the Emperor were normally raised in isolation, as Darth Sidious once told me in confidence. The red haired woman was an experiment for him, and so am I. He introduced us to one another after several years of isolation and training, curious about the impact of a close collaboration between two of his apprentices. The Dark Lord mentioned his intention to bestow me with the title of the Emperors Voice, once he’s satisfied with my training and as a cover to let Mara Jade remain perfectly unaware of the existence of other Hands of the Emperor, but I am still waiting for the day for it to happen.

Blinking, Mara Jade’s bat her eyelashes before she met my gaze, the dark red blade of her lightsaber vanished into thin air. She visibly struggled for words, which was a rare sight.

“We’re expected in the Audience Chamber. The meeting of the Imperial Senate is over and the senators should be gone until our arrival.”, she told me at a rapid pace, heading for the exit of the training facility at the low level of the Imperial Palace.

“We?”, I wondered out loud before going for a jog to close the distance between Mara and myself, falling into a steady pace right next to the redhead once I caught up to her. “Yes, our Master explicitly requested both of us.”

Mara and I remained silent for most parts of our journey to the Audience Chamber. The walls around this place had ears, and for the majority of the visitors and staff members, Mara Jade was officially a dancer around here and I was widely known as a Corellian Diplomat.

The Emperor, perched high in the center of the chamber atop a stone pillar which was guarded at its base by six red-robed Royal guardsmen, hid his pale, disfigured face behind the hood of his mantle as he spoke to a group of three as we entered the large, circular auditorium.

Their backs were turned to us, a dark haired man in the middle of them dressed in a white uniform of the Imperial Navy, framed by two black-uniformed figures.

“What’s an Admiral doing here?”, I whispered against Mara’s ear, earning an almost invisible shrug of her shoulders as we walked closer towards the center of the room.

It wasn’t any Admiral, the man in the middle turned out to be an alien Imperial officer with striking blue skin, his blue-black hair neatly combed back and the red eyes glanced over his broad shoulders for a split moment before he returned his attention on the Emperor.

Watching Mara Jade’s struggle for words was a rare sight already, but the view of an alien Imperial officer felt like an experience that only happens once in a lifetime.

“Finally, the two of you arrive.”, the voice of the Emperor echoed loudly through the auditorium, his head lifted to reveal a short glimpse on his sinister smile ghosting over his hooded face.

Mara and I came to a halt next to the trio, a hurried glance thrown at the black-uniformed man and woman on each side of the high decorated Chiss officer. Probably his protégés, I thought to myself.

As my eyes roamed over the high cheekbones gracing his angular face, his red ones met mine with an unreadable expression beneath them. I heard the Emperor speaking of his kind, the Chiss and their cold, ice-locked home planet was largely unknown in other regions.

“[Y/N], this is Grand Admiral Thrawn.”, the Emperor’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts forcefully, my attention traveling back and forth between my Master and the Chiss, his human protégés exchanging a quick glance with one another before their eyes scanned me from head to toe.

“You’ll observe his command. Further instructions on the Chimaera.”, the Dark Lord of the Sith waved his hand at us, and as flabbergasted as I felt, I had to force myself to turn around on the spot and follow the three members of the Imperial Navy out of the Audience Chambers.

‘Since when surpassed the Imperial Navy, no matter how high their rank might be, the will of the Sith?’, I wondered to myself as I felt my chest filled with anger when I walked a couple meters behind them. My hands were clenched into fists and I could feel my fingertips digging into the sensitive skin.

The voices of the humans were nothing more then muffled sounds, the two of them sometimes glancing over their shoulders with a mixture of amazement and fear resting in their eyes.

They knew what I am, and the fact that their mentor was granted authority over a member of the Sith filled them with pleasure unknown to me.

‘My Master has no confidence in me.’, I slowly began to realize, sitting down on a bench in the small space shuttle right next to the Grand Admiral and with a piercing look in my eyes, I took in the sight of his sharp features.

I almost missed the subtle movements of his hands, drawing out a dress handkerchief of his uniform as he handed it over to me, softly nodding his head towards my hands. Until know, I haven’t even noticed the blood covering the palm of my hands.

‘At least the man that know holds my leash seems at least a little bit attentive.’, I thought to myself.

“Once we arrived at the Chimaera, you can ask all your questions as soon as we’re in my private command room. Vanto, Faro, the two of you will observe the preparations for our little voyage.”, the Chiss spoke with a tranquil voice, his red eyes not leaving the window on his side, the huge illuminated buildings of Coruscants skyline began to shrink in the growing distance once the shuttle lifted itself into the air.

“Yes, Sir.”, his protégés said in unison, their eyes flickering back and forth between the Grand Admiral and myself.

The arrival on the Chimaera, an Imperial I-class Destroyer, went off rather uneventful. Curious eyes followed the Grand Admiral, whose side I never left as we walked down the long corridors at a steady pace. I knew that the clothes, which the Emperor hand-picked for myself, held the similar effect to a big sign around my neck with the word ‘Sith’ written upon it.

“I can literally smell their fear.”, I muttered to myself, the red eyes of the man next to me bored themselves into the side of my face.

“I apologize in behalf of my crew, my Lord. They’re rather young, with a lack of experience. The sight of a Dark Lord of the Sith must be overwhelming to them.”, he told me in a soothing tone and if it wouldn’t have been for the apathetic look on his face, I might have believed his words.

“I am not a Dark Lord… yet.”, I hissed with knitted eyebrows above my staring eyes as we entered an elevator, the blue skinned fingers of my companion pushing a button on the wall and the doors closed themselves swiftly.

“You may leave the Emperor as a mere Apprentice, but you will come back to him as a Dark Lord of the Sith.”, Thrawn flashed me a secretive smile before the doors of the elevator opened again and he stepped outside, a subtle wave of his hand gesturing me to follow him as I still remained frozen on the spot.

Whatever it was the Grand Admiral would tell me once we arrived in his private command room, a spark of hope grew in my chest that I would find his words to my liking.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find more of my writing at http://www.naerryn.tumblr.com


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